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Orange Supervisors Consider Future Date published: 11/15/2009
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
In less than two months, the Orange County Board of Supervisors will have two new members--and apparently some of the same issues. Grover Wilson, who handily defeated Teri Pace in District 4, and Shannon Abbs, who won over Mark Johnson in District 1 by five votes, will join the board in January. They will take on the challenges of building a budget in a lean economy, filling the county's top staff position, completely revising the county's zoning ordinance and, possibly, reconstructing the county Planning Commission. None of those tasks are being addressed right now, a continuation of the inertia exhibited by the supervisors since the dismissal of County Administrator Bill Rolfe in July. The two defeated supervisors, Pace and Johnson, voted to fire Rolfe. Acting County Administrator Julie Jordan was Rolfe's assistant; Sharon Pandak, a Northern Virginia attorney in private practice, works part time for the county under a contract that the new supervisors will probably review. At Tuesday's board meeting, supervisors couldn't agree on hiring the search firm Springsted to start looking for a county administrator. "In the last 18 months, we haven't had good experience with professionally recruited administrators," said Supervisor Zack Burkett, explaining his lack of support for professional assistance. Board Chairman Lee Frame disagreed, saying, "I think we've gotten some good people." The county has lost several department heads in the past year, some as the direct result of budget cuts. The county now has no assistant administrator or directors of economic development, tourism, community development or strategic planning. Johnson noted that Rolfe was not recruited by a professional search firm, but by county staff and supervisors. Burkett, who also voted to fire Rolfe, said the board should look inside the county for a new administrator. "I'm afraid we're ignoring the pool of high talent living in the county," he told fellow supervisors. To prepare fellow supervisors and county residents for the upcoming bleak budget-building effort, Frame asked for and received a three-year forecast of revenue and expenses from Finance Director Karen Karasinski. Her forecast warns of a shortfall of more than $7 million over the next three years, which could require a real-estate-tax increase of nearly 15 cents to cover. Frame warns that "we put the three-year forecast out there to get everyone's attention," and that the supervisors, School Board and citizens need to work together to "work this tough problem through." By the present board's inaction, it appears that recruiting and hiring a new county administrator, pre-paring the budget and setting a tax rate necessary to fund it, revising the zoning ordinance and possibly restructuring the Planning Commission are all problems the new supervisors will have to help solve. Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
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